Phantom Ranger-Matthew Terrence
by thebanjoseph
Summary: The secret origin of the Phantom Ranger


Today the world seemed to be reflecting Matt's inner turmoil, as he could hear the sky crying rain and screaming thunder. In listening to the storm, memories of times with his parents of hiking in the rain at Mount Rainier flooded to the surface and he fell deeper into the emotional sinkhole that had formed in the tragic aftermath of the accident. His grandmother was attempting to fill this hole taking him in, which required him moving from his child home of rainy Seattle to sunny Angel Grove.

Although Matt usually was excited to spend time with his grandmother, this was not a usual time. The forced move would require him to not only deal with the stress of the accident, but also being the new kid at school that was exponentially increased by his Asperger's Syndrome. It didn't help that Anthony, his father's business partner, refused to allow him to the news on the radio as Matt's parents had let him, but instead was forcing him to listen to irritating pop music. There was only so much electronic music and nasally singing voices that he could endure. Matt had been attempting to stay quiet and ignore the music, but the added stress of the rain caused him to snap.

"Could you please turn off the music, please?!" Matthew screamed, while tears started to breach his emotional dam as the stress relief techniques his therapist, Dr. Smith, had taught him gave way. "I hate this kind of music! Why can't we just listen to something nice like Pachelbel's Canon in D Major?"

He was stunned when Anthony, who had known his father and therefore should have been well versed in how to manage his episode, started screaming at him. "Is that how you treat someone who is helping you? Huh? I had to organize this trip down to California, that involved me using vacation time I could have used to bond with my girlfriend. I followed the insane list of things your parents used to get good behavior out of you, so I deserve to control the radio. If you would listen to this music you might have friends and not be so weird."

Before it could spiral any further, they reached Matthew's grandmother's house, and Matthew leaped out of the car. He then darted to the front door, so that he could find refuge. His grandmother, Gertrude, greeted Matt with a sweet, toothless smile. After a soft embrace, Matt found that his room was up the rickety wooden stairs, the first door to the right. Anthony brought in Matthew's stuff and then quickly left.

The house smelt of prune juice and lavender oil. When he was younger, and even to this day, Gertrude would offer to rub Matthew's feet with lavender oil as a method of getting him to relax and calm down. After smelling the scent of lavender he was put at ease and went down stairs to grab his stuff. When he returned to his room he started to unpack, but stopped when he saw the time, as today was a school night Matthew willed himself to bed, despite not being entirely unpacked and settled into his new home. That night he had trouble sleeping as he was forced to relive the day that the accident had occurred and he had lost his parents.

He was sitting in his dad's car and they were on their way to Mount Rainier. They had just taken the off ramp, when a drunk driver came barreling up the exit and slammed into the front of the car. Then there was a boom and a flash as the two vehicles met head, and Matthew was knocked out. When he woke up there was a loud ringing plaguing his ears and glass sprinkled around. He started screaming for his parents, but he was met with the whispers of flames and then blacked out again.

Matthew had to drag himself out of bed, as his nightmares combined with the anxiety of starting a new school outweighed his love for academia especially mathematics. At his old school he had led the mathletes to victory at district despite being one of the youngest members on the team at 11, and been one of the top players for the chess team. That love for mathematics had with the urging of his parents had led him to join band. However, the only remote talent he had in music was banging sticks, a profession he learned as an Asperger's kid. Because of this, he decided to become a member of percussion.

His grandmother drove him to school in her car, which looked the car from the "Where's the Beef" advertisements. The car ride was filled with awkward silence as neither Gertrude or Matthew knew what to say, so instead they listened to "Partita No. 1" by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Just as the song ended, Gertrude's car pulled up in front of the school. "Have a great day at school, sweetie." Matt's grandmother said. Once exiting the vehicle, he found himself beset by a large sea of intimidating school kids. He then rushed into school to minimize the period anxiety. He went to the front office of Polk Middle School and was relieved to see that for first period he had Social Skills.

As he entered the room Matthew saw a blonde boy with glasses, who was wearing blue head to toe, sitting by himself at a polished wooden table. The boy was reading what looked like an obscure comics from the Spectacular Spider-Man series.

He finally noticed the newly arrived student standing nervously in the doorway, walked up to him and energetically said, " Hi I'm Billy Cranston," in what was obviously in attempt to show off his social skills.


End file.
